That's right, today is Mother's Day, we've invited over both sets of parents, and I'll be smoking a brisket all day long. I might do some ribs and sausage too. I told Frank (62Overlander) that I'd post a thread for it, so here it is.
I started the charcoal at about 4:30 AM, and used the coals to start the wood fire by about 5:15. I also rubbed the brisket with my super-duper fantastic top-secret dry rub. But since I included the ingredients in one of the pictures I took, you'll all now be privy to this priveleged information.
I know, I know... everyone on this forum wants to see pics. I'll upload them in a few minutes.
Is that "bently" some kind of new Japanese pickup truck? Does it have dualies? Extended cab? It's a long bed right? Oh, yeh you live in austin where everyone is from someplace else... not as many pickups there. So where are the pictures?
Okay, for those who don't know, Texans are very particular about what we call "barbeque" and how we prepare it.
Now before anyone gets all up in arms, I want to preface this by saying that I've had great BBQ in Carolina, Tennessee, and Kansas City. When it comes to BBQ styles, I don't discriminate-- if it's tasty, I'm going to eat it.
And I also realize that there are some yankee folk who refer to the word "barbeque" as an activity, a get-together, a social event that centers on burgers and hot dogs cooked over an open fire. That's okay, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but down here we call that "grilling" and there are plenty of tasty treats that you can grill to be sure.
But when a Texan uses the word "barbeque" he's talking about a style of food cooked low and slow over indirect heat, or "smoking" the meat. And when a Texan refers to "barbeque" he's typically talking about beef brisket, though there are plenty of other tasty critters that you can cook low and slow.
So anyway, I just wanted to preface all of this and show you how I do it. We start off with the fire-- I use a chimney starter to get the charcoal going.
We don't cook over the charcoal. Once it's ready, I load a few logs into the offset firebox, and use the charcoal to get it started. This morning I used a couple of oak logs and a pecan log.
In the meantime, I've pulled the brisket out of the refrigerator, and allowed it to warm up for about 20-30 minutes. It'll cook better if I don't throw it in the pit straight out of the refrigerator.
It needs seasoning, and a dry rub is perfect for brisket. No need for a sop or misting or any of that stuff-- the brisket has so much fat on it and in it that it self-bastes throughout the cooking process.
Which reminds me, you should always look for an untrimmed brisket. You need ALL of the fat to withstand the long cooking time. Down here, the untrimmed brisket is also referred to as a "packer trim." If you get a "market-trimmed" brisket and try to slow-smoke it for 12 hours, you're going to be sorry.
So, the dry rub is simple. 2 parts salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part paprika. And I often throw in some chipotle powder too, but it can get pretty spicy when you do that.
my mouth is watering just looking at raw meat. We are off to the farmers market where the closest thing is "pit beef" it is sort of like BBQ. I will take the camera along so you can see the yankee version of BBQ. I look forward to seeing your pictures in a few hours.
my mouth is watering just looking at raw meat. We are off to the farmers market where the closest thing is "pit beef" it is sort of like BBQ. I will take the camera along so you can see the yankee version of BBQ. I look forward to seeing your pictures in a few hours.
Looking forward to it. Cooked dead animal is always alright in my book.
I'll give you a sneak peak at what the brisket is already looking like after almost two hours on the fire. Probably another 8-10 hours to go.
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